Phantom Thief
by evenstar1791
Summary: For Nakira.Taisho:  Kakashi gets sent on an investigation mission and gets more than he expected.  Four-Shot, will contain mature content.
1. Identities

**1- Identities**

This is for Nakira for her birthday. Happy birthday Naki-chan~!

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It was a dark night and of all things he had to go into some rundown bar to find a lead on a hopeless investigation that the Hokage had sent him on. It didn't help matters that Kakashi was pretty obviously a ninja when he walked in with his mask up. But he didn't feel comfortable with showing his face. So he just went into the bar like it wasn't a big deal and sat at the farthest end of the bar—the only space without a mirror to reflect him if he decided to actually get a drink.

"What can I do you for?" The barmaid asked, flashing him a bright smile as she leaned on the bar and tapping her engagement ring clad fingers on the immaculate maple wood of the counter. He paused, examining her, quickly deciding that she was attractive—the ring on her finger forced him to make sure his brain didn't process that she was more than that.

"Just a glass of water." She smirked, her multi-colored blue eyes sparkling.

"You on the clock, Ninja man?" He paused, but remembered about his mask. He'd made sure to dress in something other than his usual outfit, with a civilian eye-patch over his Sharingan.

"You could say that." He sighed as she turned and expertly filled a glass with ice and grabbed a bottle labeled in clear kanji 'water'. She flipped the bottle into the air and caught it, filling the glass from a distance as though it was reflex to fill glasses that way. Kakashi stared at her in open shock—his mouth would have been hanging open from the shock of it. She laughed a little, depositing the bottle back on the counter and carrying the glass of water over to him.

"Part of my money comes from being able to 'perform' like that. You should see me with four bottles of alcohol and a shaker." She winked at him before turning to take care of a new customer. He paused, checking his reaction simply because of the ring glinting in the dim light of the bar on her finger. She was a barmaid—an either engaged or married barmaid at that—and it was part of her job to be nice to her customers for bigger tips.

Turning so no one could see his face as he took a long drink of the water, he tried to concentrate on his job. It was supposed to be a lead on Orochimaru. But he hadn't been able to dig anything up in almost eighteen hours of investigating. Finally, he gave up on the prospect of scanning the bar and listening for meaningful conversations in favor of having a few drinks to calm his nerves. So he flagged the barmaid down and she walked over with a bright smile. "You need a refill on that water?"

"What's your specialty?" He asked. She grinned.

"Decided to have a good strong drink after all?" He nodded once. "I'll fix it right up." She turned and grabbed a shaker from the shelf, dropping a couple of cubes of ice into the container before picking out about five bottles of multicolored liquids. She paused for a moment, crouching behind the counter. From his vantage point, Kakashi could clearly see her pulling something from the valley of her breasts—he checked himself before his mind wandered off in the wrong direction, reminding himself sharply about the ring. She straightened after pouring a few drops of a glowing liquid into the shaker from a vial in her hand and returning the vial to the inside of her shirt. She straightened and started juggling the five bottles she'd selected, alternately pouring precisely measured amounts of the liquids into the shaker before returning the bottles to their places.

With a glance at Kakashi, she screwed the lid onto the shaker and tossing it into the air in lieu of firmly shaking it. The shaker landed directly in front of him and he blinked in surprise. With a light laugh, the girl walked over with a margarita flute rimmed with salt. "Brace yourself. I've never had anyone order this drink without staring at it in shock." She opened the shaker and poured a glowing, multicolored drink that looked like a tie-dyed shirt that was dipped in a vat of glow-in-the-dark liquid.

With a long look at the drink, he picked up the drink and turned away to take a sip. "You're Hatake Kakashi, aren't you?" He nearly choked on the drink. "I thought so." He set the drink down, slowly turning to face her.

"What makes you ask?"

"I know my stuff about famous ninja. It was the mask that tipped me off." She tapped her nose and turned.

"You know my name, but what's yours?"

"Lao Kiren." She answered lightly, going back to her job.

"Did you hear? The Phantom is gonna hit the art gallery at midnight." A guy sitting a few seats away from Kakashi at the bar commented to his companion.

"Yea. I wonder if we go to watch, we'll see her." The man's companion said, almost eagerly. "I hear she's a real dish even with the mask." The mask comment piqued Kakashi's interest. Now _that_ would be something worth investigating. Not some cold lead on Orochimaru.

"That's only a rumor. Not even the officials who are after her have seen even her shadow. They just know that she posted a note on what she'd be stealing and it disappeared right under their noses." Kakashi immediately knew how she did that. She obviously stole the item while posting her notice and left an illusion in its place to make them think it simply vanished when they had their back turned.

"You want something else to drink?" Kiren asked lightly, suddenly in front of him. He paused, staring at the glass he'd absently drained. His hand twitched and he almost reached to check his mask. "Don't worry. I'm the only one here who can see your face." She winked. "You liked it?"

"Yea." She grinned.

"Then you want something else or another one? I don't recommend more than one of those drinks though. Even some of the ones that come in and can hold their liquor really well have trouble with the second one."

"Then I know a few people who shouldn't even have one. Though it doesn't seem to be that strong…" She laughed, leaning across the bar and very suggestively pressing her breasts out—the things were large enough that it was _very_ hard for Kakashi to ignore them as he mentally beat the crap out of himself for even _starting_ to think about a woman wearing a ring that was so obviously either a wedding band or an engagement ring.

"That's what they all say." A clock chimed and she shot upright. "Almost eleven thirty…"

"Have somewhere you need to be?" She shook her head a little.

"Not at all. It's just that we're pretty close to the art gallery that's supposed to be robbed tonight. I'm expecting all six of the customers in the building to leave to watch for a glimpse of the thief and to see if the officials will actually catch her. That's how it is every time she announces a robbery." She sighed. "What did you want to drink?"

"I guess Sake will do."

XX

The next day, the news of the Phantom's accomplishment the night before had the town buzzing. And not a soul had seen her coming or going. In fact, not a soul in the town suspected who she was. And that was how she liked it. No one knew who she was and she could keep searching for _it_.

The problem was the ninja that had recently arrived. He'd probably recognize her tactics and help the authorities. She didn't want any sort of interference with her mission. She had to find the item that had been stolen from her family—even though she had no idea what it looked like—and she'd be damned if she let some ninja stop her.

She had to come up with some plan to stop him before he got started. So she had to do research on the man to find his weakness. And the best way to do that was to have a look at his things. She already had an idea of where he was staying, so it wouldn't be that difficult to track down his belongings and investigate.

XX

Kakashi was agitated. Not only was the investigation he was _supposed_ to be doing a bust, but he'd just gotten a message from Tsunade to investigate the Phantom. And there was no information on the criminal! Just the information he'd heard initially. She posted a note on the item she'd be stealing and then it disappeared. No one saw her come or go, and the authorities knew next to nothing else.

His agitation also had a lot to do with the fact that he was undercover and had had to remove his mask because of it. He didn't like the idea of anyone seeing his face. It just didn't sit well with him.

Back at the hotel after a failed investigation, he was about to go into his room and take a well-deserved nap before going to the bar to see if he could glean any more information from conversations. But as he rested his hand on the doorknob, he heard movement inside.

_Shit. And my weapons are in there._ He thought crossly. _Oh well. I've got other ways to stop whoever's in there._

So he opened the door silently and slipped into the room. He scanned the room and saw a black-clad woman rifling through his bag. A fall of long hair was concealing her face, though she was at an angle where he could see her curves. The woman didn't really care about revealing herself he assumed.

Considering the black outfit she was wearing was very revealing. He looked her over, checking for weapons. She seemed unarmed, but anything could be hidden between her large breasts. And with her outfit unzipped to the point that her breasts could fall out with even the slightest movement, she could easily have pulled out a weapon.

Abruptly, her nose twitched and she jerked her head up, locking multi-colored blue eyes on Kakashi. He didn't need to remove her mask to recognize her from there. even though the mask covered from her forehead to the end of her nose. She stood and bolted to the window, long legs carrying her stronger and faster than he'd expected. The window opened before she got to it, and he saw her hands moving rapidly in a series of hand-signs.

She'd used Ninjutsu to open the window, just as she was about to use a complex transformation technique to escape. He gave chase, reaching to catch her. His hand brushed her butt just as her form quivered and a powerful looking jackal buzzard flew out the window. She caught him by surprise. That didn't sit well with him.

It also didn't sit well with him that the woman—who had obviously been the Phantom—had got into his stuff. She'd probably assumed that he'd get in her way and she was looking for some way to catch him off guard. She'd certainly succeeded in that.

To his advantage though, he knew who she was now. And if he was lucky, she didn't realize that. He'd find out the next time he saw her. For now though, he'd just check to make sure she hadn't managed to slip off with any of his things and then he'd take a nap. He closed the window and started checking his things.

XX

That had been close. And she had no idea if he'd recognized her or not. She'd find out if he showed up that night. She knew from experience that ninjas didn't like their privacy invaded, and he'd take her up on the challenge. She counted it as a challenge. Especially since she'd found what could very well have been his weakness.

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Yes, it is the end of a chapter. I did say this was a four-shot in the info. But now you have something to look forward to. I'll be trying to post a chapter every few days until the last chapter's date. As I said, this is for Nakira's birthday, which is on the thirty-first. Drop me a review and tell me what you think!


	2. Investigating

**2- Investigating**

Chapter two~! Hopefully I don't accidentally rush this story's plot…it's going to be interesting.

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They watched each other the entire time he was in the bar. Though Kiren didn't seem intimidated by Kakashi's hard stare. In fact, she didn't even seem to be affected by his presence. So if she really _was_ the Phantom, she was doing a very good job of disguising herself.

There was also the fact that she hadn't left the bar the night before—especially not during the time the Phantom was supposed to be robbing an art gallery. If she was the Phantom, she could very well have used a shadow clone to steal the item while keeping up the charade of a humble barmaid—engaged or married barmaid, he corrected himself.

The Phantom hadn't been wearing a ring. Maybe she didn't wear it while dressed as the Phantom? Unless, of course, the two women weren't the same person. But that would mean there was more than one woman with the same multi-colored eyes. And that seemed extremely unlikely—unless Kiren had an identical twin sister.

"Would you like something to drink?" Kiren's voice jolted Kakashi from his thoughts.

"Sure." She smiled brightly at him and stepped back.

"What do you want then?"

"Your specialty." She laughed a little.

"Okay then. One Teishinai, coming up." She proceeded to make the drink and hand him the cup.

"Thanks…" He took it and started drinking it slowly.

"I see you're not wearing your mask today." She commented.

"It's because of the stupid mission I'm on." He sighed.

"Well, you do kind of stand out with the mask." He paused. He hadn't thought about it that way. He was just frustrated about the whole situation—particularly the present debate of the Phantom's identity and the fact that he wasn't comfortable with people being able to see his face.

"I didn't think so."

"This isn't a ninja village. This isn't even a village that gets a lot of ninja visitors. So someone in a mask _does_ stand out here…especially if they don't otherwise look like a ninja or someone that would normally wear a mask." She said lightly, leaning on the bar in front of him. The place was quite empty save the two of them.

"That's not something I usually think of."

"Obviously." She smirked and leaned closer to him, forcing him to back up a little. Normally, he wouldn't have bothered to worry about the close proximity and the risk of touching her, but considering what he'd assumed about her on his first impression, he decided to worry about it. "Someone's skittish. There's no one here, you know."

"I realize that." He paused. This was the perfect opportunity to catch her if she was the Phantom. "Does the Phantom usually make a practice of digging through the possessions of visitors?" She blinked in surprise at the question.

XX

He'd recognized her. Shit. She had to think fast to get him off the trail. The best way to do that, she figured, would be to play dumb and keep her face serene.

"I'm not acquainted with her, so I don't know. But I've never heard of her doing anything like that." She thought her tone sounded innocent, but she couldn't tell how he was interpreting it. This man really was unpredictable. She also couldn't figure out why someone who carried around and read erotic novels would be so determined not to be physically close to someone who was called 'quite attractive'.

The ring. It suddenly hit her. She hadn't noticed that in anyone else. She always wore a ring to work to keep guys from getting _too_ friendly with her at the bar. It didn't stop half of them from casually flirting with her and responding to her flirtatious personality. But this guy, this _obviously_ perverted ninja, was going out of his way to keep from unintentionally making a pass at her because of her ring. So he wasn't the type to have an affair with a claimed woman.

"I see. I'll tell you something interesting then." She was thrown from her deducing and blinked at him.

"Why would you want to do that? It's not like I'm a public safety officer." He smirked and she wondered for a moment if he hid his face to keep women from swooning at the mere sight of him.

"I know how the Phantom does it."

"Does what?" Did he really figure out so quickly how she committed her crimes?

"Steal without getting caught." His smirk turned mischievous and she got the feeling that he was bluffing, trying to flush her out. Well, that tactic wouldn't work. She was just as skilled a 'ninja' as he was. Pretending to know just as much about a thief as anyone else was a simple feat for her, even if she was the thief herself.

"Oh? Maybe you should tell the authorities then, not little old me."

"Like you said, this isn't a ninja village. They wouldn't think that someone would be able to steal using ninjutsu. What do the natives think we do anyways?"

"Everyone assumes that ninja are like public safety officers, but stronger with the ninjutsu." She said lightly, feigning disinterest.

"That's not entirely true." He put his drink down and folded his arms over his chest. "Part of our job is stealth and information gathering. Sometimes we even have to _steal_ from certain people." Shit. He _did_ know how she did it.

"Really?" She leaned closer, pretending to be intrigued by that. "So you think the Phantom is a ninja?"

"Not quite. I think she's stealing her prizes in broad daylight and using illusions to trick people into thinking she's stealing them at night." He had her. Now she just had to pretend to be shocked by the theory and smooth it over with a bit of innocent curiosity. The more she could get out of him, the better an idea she had of how to handle her next theft.

"But wouldn't someone notice if she walked in and stole something right under their noses in the middle of the day?"

"Do they notice her when she puts her notes on her targets?" He was too perceptive. But then again, he was a ninja. If he didn't have the deducing powers to figure out one insignificant thief, he wouldn't be so famous. So she just had to play it cool.

"Hm…I guess you're right."

"My theory is that her notes are a distraction. She goes in and replaces the item with a loose replica that's laced with an illusion to make it appear to be the real thing. She puts the note on it and walks out with the real thing while everyone tries to prepare for a theft that's already happened. At the time designated in her note, the illusion breaks and the replica is revealed with a new note." How did he know about the second note? That wasn't public knowledge. So he really _was_ there investigating her.

"I didn't know there was a second note. I guess the authorities didn't want it known…"

"True. They didn't tell anyone about the second notes. They figure they're embarrassed enough by the fact that they can't catch the Phantom without adding to it that she taunts them after the fact." He had her in a corner. If she didn't smooth this over, she'd really screw herself. "What gets me is the why. Why would someone go to such great lengths? Surely not for the publicity…?" Just the question she needed him to ask.

"Maybe it's for the town?"

"What?" She smiled a little.

"Before the Phantom showed up, this town was going under. I'm sure you've noticed. The only thing going for this town really is the shopping. But it's a long way out from a lot of major places. So people lost interest in coming here to find obscure stuff. When the Phantom started stealing here, word got out about her and people started coming from all over just to get a glimpse of her. Thanks to her, we're all better off here."

"Hm…" That was all he had to say? After she made a clearly innocent declaration. That was what a lot of people would say if asked why she was a thief. Why would someone go to such trouble to find something that was stolen from her family after all? Especially not knowing what the stupid thing looked like. "That _is_ what everyone I've asked has said." All the more reason for him to believe her innocence. Somehow, she got the feeling it wasn't going to be that easy.

"Well that's what everyone thinks."

"I don't think that's her reason though." The man didn't know when to give up! She looked at his glass and noticed it was empty.

"You want something else to drink?" That was a normal thing for a barmaid to do. Interrupt a conversation with a customer to refill their drink.

"Another one is fine." He said lightly. She was hoping to get him off the subject casually and without proving to him who she was. "Your man is a lucky one. You seem really nice." She turned around to get the stuff for his drink, effectively concealing her grimace.

"There is no man. I'm single." She said lightly, turning as she fixed his drink.

"Really? Then why wear a ring?"

"To keep the male customers in line. They see that the barmaid is taken and they back off." She handed him the drink. The ball was in his field now, would he take the bait?

"Smart idea." He commented, taking a drink. So he wasn't going to take her bait? What kind of man was this guy! Maybe he wasn't as much of a perv as she thought at first. "How would you react if I said that you're at the top of my list of suspects?"

"I'd ask if you were crazy. I'm just a barmaid. I run this bar all the time and if I'm not in here working, I'm in my apartment upstairs sleeping."

"Can you prove that though?" He had a noose around her neck now. She had to be careful how to word her retort or she'd hang herself. He hadn't specified that it was _his_ things she'd been digging through.

"Can you prove that the Phantom was rooting through someone's things?" The question caught him off guard.

"I suppose your right. But if you don't mind, I'd like to keep an eye on you. Just to clear you from the list." She smiled a little.

"I can understand that. I'm closing up early tonight since there's no one here. How long do you plan to place your surveillance?"

"As long as I need." She stepped out from behind the bar and headed for the door. "You're locking up now?" She nodded, locking the door and flipping the sign in the window.

"Yes. I'm assuming that what you mean by keeping an eye on me is that you'll be watching me twenty-four hours a day." He nodded once in response. This would be child's play for her, convincing him that she wasn't the thief. Or at least that's what she thought.

XX

Kakashi watched Kiren carefully as she went about cleaning up her bar. The way she moved when bending over and picking things up was the same as what he'd seen from the Phantom when he'd caught her in his hotel room.

"Do you run this bar on your own then?" She nodded once, in the middle of putting chairs up on the tables. If she was the Phantom, she was doing a very good job of trying to throw him off. By the time she finished cleaning up, he'd finished his third drink and was leaning on the wall.

"Yep." She said with a smile, heading for a door at the back of the bar. "My apartment's this way." He followed her.

"Why a bar? You could probably just as easily run another type of business, couldn't you?"

"My brother owned this bar before he died. We were all we had besides this place, so I took over when he died." He smirked.

"And who was the ninja in your family then?" She stopped in her ascent to the apartment to look back at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Her expression was a mix of defensiveness and surprise. He had her backed into a corner again. He could just tell.

"Sorry. That was rude." He laughed, acting as though he hadn't caught on. He had to admit, the next couple of days would probably turn out to be extremely interesting.

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Has anyone made the connection yet? If you haven't, I have to wonder if you paid attention…anyways, chapter updates will be pretty slow in coming since it's only a four-shot and I'm planning to post the finale on Halloween. It's also hard to keep her from reading this over my shoulder as I write this.


	3. Inspiration

**3- Inspiration**

Chapter 3~! It's almost the end…and I'm looking forward to Halloween.

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Okay, so it wasn't as interesting as he thought it would be. All the woman did was _read_! And she didn't even read interesting looking books. They were all romance novels—of the breeding that little teenaged girls would read. So Kakashi figured that Kiren was a romantic who didn't quite catch on to what an adult romance would entail.

"You're welcome to read. I'm sure it's boring just watching me read like this." She said with a smile, not looking up from her book. He could tell from her expression that she was taunting him. Setting his expression into a scowl, he picked a book from her shelf and opened it. Okay. Maybe her taste in books wasn't of the teenaged girl variety.

A teenager would get a nosebleed just thinking of what those pages held. So she wasn't an innocent woman. He scanned the shelf and spotted the gold mine. She had the entire Icha-Icha series. She _definitely_ wasn't innocent if she read those. So he wouldn't get distracted from his current goal of figuring this woman out, he put the book down and started casually looking around the apartment.

It was quaint, but obvious she never brought company up. The simple fact that the only kind of decoration there was in the main room as an altar dedicated to her family. Other than the altar, the only furniture in the room was a table and some pillows to sit on. The bookshelf didn't count as furniture—even though it covered the entire wall almost. Apparently her taste in books ranged from erotic romances to mysteries to business management texts.

Upon investigating the kitchen, he figured she didn't bring her work home with her. There was no alcohol or even mixed drink recipes. So the business books were the most she took home with her. He checked the bathroom, but found nothing more than an unexpectedly masculine setup. The only thing the bathroom lacked to show that there was a man living there was the telltale sign of the toilet seat being up.

Before he left the bathroom, a black string caught his eye and he crouched to investigate. A black string was hanging out of the door to the cabinet under the sink. He opened the cabinet and found a mask. It was the mask the Phantom had been wearing when he caught her in his hotel room. The only reason it would be in Kiren's apartment would be if she really _was_ the Phantom.

He put it back in the cabinet and shut the door. Perhaps she wouldn't notice that he was on to her if he didn't mention the mask. If he could make her think that she was throwing him off, it would play to his advantage. He emerged from the bathroom to see Kiren getting ready for bed. Or at least that's what he assumed.

XX

His weakness, she figured, was the female body. So she planned to use her form to her advantage. It was fortunate that she preferred to sleep in the nude anyways.

"I hope you don't mind. I sleep in the nude usually." She looked over her shoulder at him to see him turn around to face away from her. She shrugged into her robe and approached him. "You're surprisingly skittish."

"Well what did you expect? I may be a man but I'm not an ass. I know when to give a woman her privacy." She smirked and brushed past him into the bathroom. An electric shock went through her where she came in contact with him and she gasped in surprise. What was that?

"I can see that…" She wondered if he'd felt that shock. He probably hadn't. And it was probably because she'd been walking on the rugs in the living room. Now to look at the matter at hand. Her assumptions about him were quite wrong so far. There had to be some way to catch that man off guard and off her trail.

She'd definitely caught him off guard when she'd invaded his hotel room, but that was probably because he didn't know she'd be there. But how to catch him off guard with him expecting some sort of move from her to confirm her identity? It didn't help matters that she was subconsciously drawn to the man. Her thought process was hindered when the mere sight of Hatake Kakashi sent her gut to clenching and her hormones telling her to jump the man's bones.

Yep, her damned female hormones were at fault for the way she was suddenly torn between quickly sending him out of her apartment with the firm idea in his head that she was _not_ the thief that she really was and leaving the bathroom to strip him down and fuck him in the middle of her living room floor. Though the thought had crossed her mind to get involved with him romantically so that he'd subconsciously put his little suspicion of her away in a dark corner of his mind, never to be seen or heard from again. The only thing was, her 'transformation' wasn't just a jutsu. It had sent several men running from dates while still getting dressed.

So she was a freak. Her stupid mother just _had_ to have screwed around with the wrong person and find out _after_ they were married and had a set of twins that he wasn't human. Yea, the man was a shape-shifting demon related—albeit _quite_ distantly—to the Bijuu. And what did he turn into? A _jackal buzzard_. Granted, because of the fact that she'd taken it upon herself to have that demon side sealed when she was younger, Kiren had to use a transformation jutsu to bring that form out—unless of course she got overrun with emotions.

Like when having really good sex. And because of the fact that most men went running when the girl they were banging turned into a carcass eating bird in the middle of the act, she'd pretty much resigned herself to the idea of life-long celibacy. Until she'd met Kakashi. Her first reaction when she'd met him—besides the obvious fact that he was a ninja with a thing for hiding his face—was that familiar clenching in her gut that she hadn't felt since the last time she'd dated someone. Well, since the last time she'd attempted sex, but that was at the same time, so it still counted. So she clearly had some sort of sexual attraction to him on a subconscious level.

She opened the bathroom door a crack to see what he was doing and if he'd sense her using a jutsu to send a clone out to look for her next target. He was leaning against the wall, reading one of her Icha-Icha books. Her mouth started to water. He'd taken it upon himself to get comfortable—in the way that he was now shirtless and his low-slung pants were the only thing he was wearing besides that damned eye-patch. Okay, he wasn't going to notice her little jutsu, she figured.

So she quickly made her clone and sent it off to do research.

XX

Kakashi smirked a little. So she was assuming he wouldn't notice a shadow clone jutsu. He'd pretend he hadn't noticed it. What he had on his mind anyways was that weird shock when she'd brushed past him before. There wasn't enough carpet in the living room for that to be the cause of it.

He hadn't made any skin contact with her before, and even then he hadn't made actual _skin_ contact. The small brush of his fingertips on her butt when she'd invaded his hotel room hadn't even brought on a shock like that. Was it just a weird one-time thing then? But if that was the case, then why?

She was obviously making muted passes at him now. Did she think that if she somehow seduced him, he would overlook the fact that she was a thief and using ninjutsu to do it? Well, she _was_ attractive. And he'd had to work _very_ hard to avoid making even the slightest _hint_ of a pass at her and force himself not to look at her like he looked at every other woman he'd ever met.

He'd had to work _too_ hard. In fact, he was still forcing himself to push the image of her completely nude out of his head. He was working on flushing her secret out of her own mouth and getting an admission of both her thefts and the purpose of them.

Maybe she got off on the thrill of stealing things in broad daylight? But that wouldn't explain why she went to all the trouble with the notes and illusions. The illusions, he could understand as that would give her time to get away from the scene without anyone realizing they'd been robbed until she was safely back at the bar with the stolen goods safely tucked away. Though the notes would probably cause security to tighten in places she was likely to target and that might add to the rush of it. It was a possibility.

Or maybe it was that she pawned them off in another town for the money? No, if that was the case, her bar wouldn't be so run-down. It would at least be slowly getting more attractive and get more customers. So that probably wasn't the reason.

Maybe she was looking for something, but didn't know exactly what it looked like? He'd noticed that almost all of the objects she'd stolen had approximately the same shape. But when she found out that it wasn't what she'd been looking for, she seemed to have the personality to return the items. None of the things the Phantom had stolen had been returned or mysteriously appeared in the police office, so that made it an unlikely theory.

Then what was her reason? Anything was possible, but no matter how he looked at any theory he could come up with, there was something in her behavior that contradicted every single one of them. He looked up from the book a little when she emerged from the bathroom. Her robe was hanging open.

So she was planning to seduce him and see if he'd overlook things that way? Well, she had a decent enough body. He could play along with it for a while—before things went too far, at least. He had no intention of giving in to lust when he had a job to do. And then his mind went back to the quandary from before.

_Why_ did he have such a hard time not looking at that woman in a sexual light? And even if his mind didn't immediately wander to _that_, he still had a hard time preventing himself from raking his gaze over her and wondering what would happen if he got romantically involved with her. She seemed the type to enjoy the storybook romantic approach, considering almost all of the books she had on the shelves involved some sort of 'love at first sight' fairytale concept.

Love at first sight…? That got him thinking as he dropped his gaze back to the book he'd already read a hundred times through. He honestly didn't believe in the concept, but when he got to thinking about it, it kind of made sense. From the moment he first saw her, he couldn't get her out of his head—in either the form of Kiren or the Phantom. Not that he really had a choice but to think of her in the light of being the Phantom. But knowing who she was, it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to mesh the two personas together.

On the one hand, Kiren _seemed_ innocent and smart, while on the other hand, the Phantom was obviously dubious and definitely _not_ innocent in any way. But at the same time, Kiren was going to such lengths as to try and seduce him—which was made obvious by the fact that she was steadily approaching him with her robe hanging wide open and nothing else underneath—which he honestly wouldn't have put on his list of things she'd be likely to do based on what he'd observed of her previously.

"Hey Kakashi?" She asked suddenly, jolting him from his thoughts and drawing his attention. She was by now leaning over so she could look into his face. He forced himself to concentrate on her face and not the unconfined—and very _large_—breasts that were looming over him.

"What?"

"What's under that eye-patch of yours? See, I do a lot of research on ninja for some extra cash for the school, but there's no information I could find that said why you hide one eye." He wondered for a moment if she could see the scar peeking out from under the patch. He shrugged instead of worrying about that, closing the book and shifting his position—he'd been sitting with one knee drawn up so he could rest the arm he was holding the book with on his knee and the other leg bent out and away from him—so that he had both legs jutting out in front of him.

"It's not any of your business. A ninja doesn't reveal his secrets so easily." She smiled a little and rested a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, he regretted taking that shirt off in an attempt to get comfortable. But at least he wasn't completely nude wearing a robe that wasn't even tied closed. In fact, the only reason he was currently regretting the shirt decision was because of the sudden volts of electricity and the heat that seemed to be entering his body from that contact.

Okay, so he'd never had a reaction like this to _anyone_. _Ever_. Okay, maybe he was starting to buy into the whole 'love at first sight' bit. If he had _this_ sort of a reaction just to her putting her hand innocently on his shoulder, it would only get worse the more suggestive her actions got.

Seeming to guess his train of thought, or having the same set of thoughts he was and wishing to experiment, she lowered her head and kissed him. He went rigid as she suddenly took control of the situation. Still kissing him, she lowered herself to the floor and shrugged out of her robe before abruptly throwing herself at him. This was too much.

His nerves couldn't handle it anymore. The force of her kiss and the sudden onslaught of heat and electricity wherever their skin touched had him rock hard and having _quite_ the hard time trying to rationalize and push her off.

XX

She'd been right. The moment she'd touched his shoulder, her body had taken over. It was like she had no control over what her body was doing. It was just doing what it wanted. Even if that meant all but raping the ninja under her. She thought she might have muttered an apology into that kiss, but when he responded in almost a primal way, she honestly couldn't remember if she'd even tried to apologize.

Abruptly, his mouth opened against hers and he took her bottom lip between his teeth, biting light enough not to cause pain, but just enough to send a spike of pleasure down her spine. He sucked a little on her lip until it felt swollen and puffy before he snaked his tongue into her mouth and twirled it around hers. She was panting for air by then and fumbled to grab his hand to guide it to her breasts.

She suddenly had this powerful _need_ to have sex with him. What was the term she'd heard from her father before he and her mother had been killed…? Oh right. Mating.

It suddenly hit her. She was half demon, and her father had 'mated' with her mother in what they'd referred to as a primal and brutal bout of sex. So…since she inherited that damned animal form…did she also inherit that need to 'mate' that would suddenly hit her at random with someone she barely knew? There was no question about it. Kakashi Hatake was her mate.

%%%

Okay, yes, I know. I'm cutting this chapter off in a _really_ good place. And you have to wait till Halloween for the finale~! To kill the anxiety a little, I'm working very hard on Unspeakables and trying to get Black Leather continued. Drop me a review and let me know what you think~!


	4. Invitations

**4- Invitations**

I have nothing to say about this except: This is the end~!

%%%

Something happened. He wasn't sure what exactly it was, but Kakashi _knew_ something happened. He knew _when_ it happened: the moment Kiren threw herself at him. It could have been a shift in gravity…but that would have been too drastic. Wouldn't it?

He still wasn't even sure why he'd responded to it. It was like his body had a life of its own all of a sudden. He tried stopping what was clearly about to happen. He barely knew Kiren, and on top of that, she was a thief who he'd have to turn in to the authorities when he got that confession out of her. He couldn't have sex with a woman he barely knew. No, he wouldn't _allow_ himself to have sex with a woman he barely knew.

"Kakashi…" She gasped, pulling back suddenly. Maybe he wouldn't have to struggle as hard as he'd thought. She seemed about to say something, but the silence hung in the air.

"What?" She worried her swollen lower lip.

"There's…" Shaking her head a little, she sat back—not bothering to put her robe on—and looked him in the eye. "I should tell you something…before this manages to go any further."

"And that is?" Was she going to confess then and there?

"Well…how to put this…?" She sighed. "I guess I just don't want to freak you out too much if things get serious…"

"And why would that happen?"

"When I get…emotionally compromised I guess is how to put it…well, let's just say I've had too many men running from the bed struggling to get dressed…"

"I don't see how you could drive anyone from a bed." He said blankly. What she was saying didn't make sense. She was very attractive. Any man in their right mind wouldn't decline an invitation into her bed, he thought.

"Okay fine. I'm not going to be able to explain this without dashing any hopes you might have had when you came up here." He lifted his eyebrow.

"Oh?" She took a deep breath, as though to steel herself for something.

"As you suspected…" So she actually was confessing. How odd. "I'm the Phantom."

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Because I can't really explain the situation without that in the open. When I left your hotel room…"

"You used a transformation technique to flee."

"That's not exactly….well, it's true, but it wasn't a transformation technique. It was a seal release to allow me to take on a natural animal form…"

"Oh?" She shifted a little.

"You know about the Bijuu right?" Great, she was about to tell him she was a Jinchuriki, wasn't she? Though he didn't think there was a Bijuu with the appearance of a _jackal buzzard_, but he could have been wrong. He nodded since she was waiting for a response. "Okay…and just so you know, I'm not a Jinchuriki. My father was a demon. He was related—not very closely, but it still counts—to the Bijuu…" She sighed and continued. "I'm half demon, to put it bluntly."

"And what does that mean?" He thought he understood it, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"It's hard to explain…"

"I can see that." He smirked. "So what? You turn into a Jackal Buzzard when 'emotionally compromised'?" She nodded seriously. "And what would being 'emotionally compromised' mean, exactly?" She flushed and it suddenly crossed his mind that she was kind of sexy looking with that look on her face.

"Well…I mentioned driving men from bed…"

"Okay." He prompted. He knew he was baiting her, but he actually was kind of enjoying seeing her squirm a little.

"Fine." She set her expression into a scowl and folded her arms under her breasts. "Sometimes in the middle of sex, I'll lose control on the seal over my demon blood and transform. One guy didn't even bother getting dressed, just ran out of the room screaming bloody fucking murder." He went a bit too far, he guessed. She was pissed now.

XX

Gods this man was infuriating. Kiren was sitting there, _trying_ to have a conversation with him so he would be aware of what might happen if they continued, and he was _baiting_ her! Like he was enjoying seeing her trying frantically to explain something impossible and getting flustered! It was even harder for her to explain things with every inch of her body screaming at her to shred his pants and jump his bones.

A quick glance down his body revealed the bulge in the crotch of his pants and her instincts took on a renewed attack on her mind. Lifting her gaze to him, she sent him a deadly glare. She was pretty sure he either was too dense to realize that some of his muscles were twitching in what she figured was an attempt at getting at her, or he was having as much of a hard time sitting still as she was. She _knew_ it couldn't have been just her.

"Well, I guess we'll have to see if that happens here." She blinked in surprise at his words and barely had time to prepare herself when she saw his muscles bunch in preparation for a move. She didn't even see him move before he had her back on the ground and her arms pinned over her head.

"Kakashi…" She started, but didn't get a chance to voice her question before he silenced her with a deep, passionate kiss. She gasped in surprise at the sudden assault. If she didn't take control of the situation quickly, for all intents and purposes, this man would rape her. She could _smell_ it.

As soon as she realized this, she pooled her strength into her arms and flipped over to pin him to the ground, breaking the kiss and keeping her face at a safe distance from his as she pinned his arms with one hand and carefully grasped his throat with the other to keep him from trying to struggle. "Let me talk before you start acting like an animal in rut."

He blinked at her and nodded a little. Slowly, she moved her hand from her throat and sat back a little, resting her butt against the waistband of his pants. She released his hands and he didn't move. "Now that we're clear…" She sighed. "I want you to understand right now that if we go forward, I have no expectations of you not to reveal me to the police. That said…I have a question."

"Okay…"

"I've never told anyone else about my family. Do you know what that means?"

XX

What it meant? For a minute, he didn't even understand her question. When it clicked, the meaning of that also clicked.

"Don't tell me…you've fallen in love with me?" He asked hesitantly. His voice sounded a bit hopeful for some reason.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" There it was again. That concept that was always popping up in fiction.

"Do you?" She frowned a little, but nodded.

"Of course. If I didn't believe in it, I wouldn't be open to fate." He raised his eyebrow a little. What the hell did 'fate' have to do with 'love at first sight'? "Think about it, Kakashi. Most animals find their mate by simply catching sight of them and then pursuing them. And…most animals mate for life." What was she talking about?

"What are you going on about?" She sighed a little and shook her head.

"I guess explaining it won't help." She leaned forward a little and reached behind herself to unclasp the button on his pants. Shit. He'd regained his senses when she'd started talking. He was on a mission and it was against his personal policy to get involved romantically during a mission.

"Kiren, we can't do this." She frowned deeply.

"And why not? You were all over me just a minute ago."

"I don't get involved while I'm on an assignment."

"Oh?" She lowered her hand a little and stroked his traitorous cock through his pants. "Looks like you're ready to 'get involved'." He tried to push her off, but the damn girl was either suddenly very heavy or she was stronger than she looked. "You know, I can pick up a three hundred pound man over my shoulder and carry him across town with him unconscious?" He swallowed a little. An unconscious person weighed almost twice as much as when conscious.

"You wouldn't…" She smirked and leaned forward so she was almost lying on top of him.

"I told you, didn't I? Most animals find their mate by catching sight of them and the _pursuing_ them." She shifted and used her feet to push his pants down. "I'm pursuing him."

"Stop, Kiren." It wasn't that he _really_ wanted her to stop. It was that he didn't feel up to getting emotionally attached. And even if _he_ didn't get attached just by having sex with her one time, she was a woman. Women got attached. He could never understand why, but they did.

"Do you really want me to stop?" Her foot rubbed against his cock and he shuddered. Okay, she was _really_ skilled with her feet.  
>"Stop." He somehow managed to sound firm as his lower body was being so traitorous. She did after a long moment of glaring holes in his face.<p>

"Fine." She stood and scooped up her robe. "I told you who I am. I'll expect you out of my place in the morning." She shrugged into the garment and he sat up. Kiren started walking into the other room, but stopped before closing the door. "Until then…even if you change your mind…my bedroom door will be locked." The door shut and the lock clicked.

Kakashi pulled his pants back up and stood. He headed for the front door and paused, glancing at her bedroom. He should have felt accomplished. He'd gotten a confession, and resisted temptation all in one go. He could go to the police office and turn in her name and address and be back in Konoha before the weekend started with this whole incident behind him.

But why did he feel a little guilty? Okay, not just a little. He felt _really_ guilty about it. But there wasn't anything he could do about it. He was going to do what needed to be done and that was that. He didn't have any feelings for Kiren except lust. Well, that's what he kept telling himself.

Shaking his head, he left the apartment and exited the bar through the delivery door. He wondered a little if she'd been serious about the whole 'pursuing' thing. If he turned her in, would she even be there when they went to make the arrest? He put it to the back of his mind as he headed for the police office to hand in his findings.

XX

It had been a month since she'd gone into hiding in Konoha. She was tired of it. Tired of not being able to even catch a glimpse of Kakashi, at least.

"What are you doing here? This training ground is for ninja use only." A female voice said behind her suddenly. Kiren turned from gazing at the small lake to see a strawberry blond girl glaring daggers at her. "_And_ we're about to use it."

"Oh?" She stood and dusted her clothes off. "Sorry to inconvenience you then. I'll be going." She started to put her hands together. She hadn't bothered much with walking around town, so she was going to use a transportation technique to get out of this girl's line of sight and shift forms to fly over the village to her little bar that she'd bought.

"What are you doing?" The girl went on the defensive and Kiren lowered her hands.

"Well, I'd been planning to just use a teleportation technique to get home, since this area's going to be occupied, but I guess I can walk."

"Sakura-chan…!" A blond boy ran over and stopped to catch his breath. "Where'd Kakashi-sensei go?"

"If you can't find him, what makes you think I can, Naruto? I'm _not_ a sensor ninja!" Kiren laughed a little.

"Are you two doing some sort of training then?"

"Huh? Who're you?"

"My name's Lao Kiren…would you do me a favor and tell Kakashi that I'm in town? He can find me at the 'Undercover'. It's a bar about two blocks down from the old Uchiha place." She started off in a run and jumped the fence surrounding the training ground, shifting form in mid-air.

XX

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said suddenly, right before Kakashi was going to make his escape. "I almost forgot. We ran into this lady before. She said to tell you she was in town."

"Did she give you a name?" He had a sneaking suspicion that it was Kiren, but he had to make sure.

"Yea. She said her name was Lao Kiren." He cursed under his breath.

"Did she say where to find her?"

"Some bar called 'Undercover'." He nodded a little.

"Thanks. See you guys around." He really had things to do, so he'd get them done and go find out why in the hell Kiren was in Konoha.

XX

It was slow in the bar that night, as was obvious in the fact that Kiren was the only person there. She was used to that, so it didn't bother her. In fact, the only reason she'd even opened another bar instead of some other type of place was that she was more comfortable owning a rundown bar that hardly anyone went to than anything else. Even though she had the cooking skills and the money to open a really nice restaurant, she still preferred tending a bar and listening to stupid idiots vent about their problems as they drank themselves into a stupor.

The door opened a few minutes after she unlocked it and she didn't even turn from straightening up her shelves of alcohol and mix add-ins. Until she saw him out of the corner of her eye. He sat at the far end of the bar—even though no one else was in the building—where there was no mirror for anyone to catch a glimpse of his face.

"You know, I keep all of the mirror obscured enough that no would be able to see your face." She joked, not looking at him.

"Why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She asked in answer.

"You know what I mean." He sounded exasperated. It made her laugh a little.

"I thought that it was pretty obvious." She finally turned to face him. "On a more serious note, are you 'on the clock', or you feeling up for a decent drink?"

"Why are you in Konoha?"

"Oh…you're seriously only here to find out why I'm in this village…even though it's pretty obvious." She crossed the space and leaned on the counter in front of him. He swallowed a little and leaned back away from her.

"You don't mean…?" She smirked and leaned closer to him.

"Did you think I would move on? Trust me, if I could have survived without hunting your happy ass down, I wouldn't have bothered coming here and I would have found a different place to escape. And just so you know, when the police showed up at my bar to arrest me, I'd already found what I was looking for and disappeared." He looked extremely nervous. "I'm serious. When I said most animals mate for life, I was including those like me. Whether you like it or not, I'll keep making advances on you until you admit that you're my mate." The only thing that stopped her from jumping over the counter and showing him very _intimately_ how serious she was about that was the door opening quietly.

She straightened up and turned to face the door. "Welcome!" She scanned the guest quickly and recognized him easily. "Oh, it's been a while since I saw you anywhere, Tobi-san." The black-clad masked man nodded a little to her and sat down. She crossed the bar to grab a glass. "The usual? What brings you to Konoha?"

"You." He said flirtatiously.

"Well, as you know, I'm _quite_ taken." She answered, just as flirtatiously.

XX

Kakashi watched in shock. He didn't recognize that mask. Though Kiren apparently knew the guy very well. She was just chatting away with him, making a drink as she did. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the sight made him jealous.

The guy obviously didn't plan to stay to even finish his drink, since he put some money on the counter and placed an empty glass on the counter before taking the one Kiren just filled in his hand and leaving. She followed him to the door and locked it behind him, flipping the sign in the window. It occurred to Kakashi that he should try to leave with his dignity intact, but he couldn't will himself to move from that seat. Until she headed for a door marked 'Employees Only' and motioned for him to follow her.

Maybe if he went along with it, she'd lose interest and leave him alone. Somehow, he doubted that it would go like that. And for some reason the idea of Kiren losing interest made him a little depressed. Just like he had barely been able to stop thinking about her for the past month. So he followed her through the door and up a flight of stairs.

She leaned on a door at the top of the stairs and caught him by the collar when he got within arm's reach of her. He gasped in surprise as she dragged him up the last two steps and yanked his mask from his face.

"What are you doing?" She smirked and kissed him deeply. It crossed his mind as his body rebelled against him and returned that kiss that she was reaching around behind him and deliberately untying his Hitai-ate. It fell to the ground and down several steps with a barely audible sound.

"Telling you just how serious about you I am." She whispered seductively after breaking the kiss and opening the door behind her to pull him through and into an apartment. She stepped back and unzipped his vest carefully. Before he could react in any way, she had him stripped to his pants and was backing up to strip out of her one-piece dress.

%%%

And that's where it ends~! Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to write a sex scene. I may come back later on and add a 'Special Chapter' for that and a mini-prologue. Maybe. For now, this is the end~! Happy birthday, Naki-chan! I hope you enjoyed it!


	5. Special

**5- Special**

Special chapter! This is for Thanksgiving because I'm _so_ grateful to everyone who's reviewed and added this story to their favorites.

%%%

Kiren sighed a little as she waited for Kakashi to get there. He'd told her he'd come into the bar about an hour or so after she opened up so she could close early. With it being right before New Years, there were plenty of people getting stupid drunk in every bar in town—Undercover included. She wanted a good excuse to kick them all out before they got too smashed to even stand up. But it had been two hours since she opened the doors and the pre-holiday drunks were filling the bar and quickly depleting her stock.

At this rate, she'd run out of alcohol before Kakashi got there. To make things worse, she was also sexually frustrated because he'd been gone on a mission for nearly two weeks and had been too exhausted when he dragged himself in the night of his return to do anything. And because she was horny and hadn't had any relief in two weeks, she was rather pissy and was having a hard time forcing herself to be kind to her aggravating customers.

Finally, the door opened and she saw the familiar shock of silver hair. A couple of her regular customers looked at the door and got up and left when they recognized him. She smiled brightly as Kakashi made his way to his usual seat at the far end of the bar and she strode over to kiss his cheek lightly. He closed his visible eye in a smile and smacked her ass lightly. She broke out in a grin and leaned close to him.

"Save it for later. I've got to clear everyone out since you're late."

"Sorry about that. I had some things I had to do." She rolled her eyes and climbed onto a stool. She faced the bar and cupped her hands over her mouth.

"Alright everyone, I'm out of alcohol so go find somewhere else to get drunk!" The lot of them groaned and left—some had to get help because they were either light-weights or had already gotten too drunk to walk straight. She hopped down from her stool and started cleaning up.

"Are you really out of alcohol?" She nodded.

"Near enough for it to be the truth. I'm gonna have to go shopping tomorrow." Kakashi laughed a little and went to lock the door behind the disappearing crowd. She smiled when he turned and pulled his mask down. Damn she just wanted to eat him up—screw getting her job done. She figured he was just as eager to get upstairs as she was, as he started helping her gather the dishes and take them to the back to wash. She resolved to wash them in the morning and grabbed him by the wrist when he emptied his hands.

He grinned brightly and she yanked his Hitai-ate off. Kiren wasn't sure they'd even make it upstairs. No. They wouldn't make it to the stairs even. She kissed him deeply and he had her white button down shirt open and hanging on her shoulders and she was making quick work of the zipper of his vest.

She tugged him out of the back and into the bar, shrugging out of her shirt and quickly unclasping her bra to toss it across the counter with the shirt. Kakashi's vest ended up with them and he had to back away from her long enough to get out of his shirt. He kicked his shoes off as well and she smirked, working the fastenings on her skirt open. "You may as well finish stripping." He laughed a little and in moments they were both naked.

It only took a moment for her to catch him in another passionate kiss. Her hand wandered down his torso and found his already hard cock and she trailed her finger along the length. "Excited to see me?"

"Very." He pushed her back and turned her around. She gasped a little at the sudden movement and he bent her over the counter. Yea, he was just as desperate to get inside her as she was to have him there. She felt his fingers slip into her folds and a small moan came from her.

"Gods Kakashi, don't fucking tease me…!" She growled, reaching back to grab his cock. He chuckled and pressed against her entrance. She wriggled her hips a little and lifted up on her tiptoes to give him better access. With one smooth thrust he sheathed himself inside her and the sound that came out of her mouth was a scream mixed with relief and pleasure-pain. He was just big enough that it hurt a little because it had been so long.

She gripped the counter as he started thrusting, taking her hard and fast—almost desperately. She was already about to cum and they hadn't done anything before this. Usually it took some foreplay and work for her to cum the first time, but since she was already so worked up and desperate for this, she was hard pressed to make herself hold it. She moved her hips, meeting his thrusts with her own and she felt his hands slip around her and start massaging her breasts. Her back arched and she gasped, riding out the orgasm she couldn't hold back any longer.

Almost immediately, she felt warm fluid gushing inside her and she grinned. He hadn't been able to last very long either. Kakashi pulled out of her and she turned around, kissing him deeply. She lazily traced his muscles with her fingers, trailing her way to his member. Either her kiss had made him hard again, or he was just that eager to do her again.

She backed away and sat down on a stool, spreading her legs. She didn't even have to say anything or invite him, he was instantly in front of her with his prick teasing her entrance. She shifted a little and he pushed inside her. She put her arms around him and ran her tongue lightly along the shell of his ear.

XX

It had been nearly a year since both Naruto came back to the village and Kiren had all but forced him to admit that he loved her. And even though Kakashi had only known her for a month longer than that, he was going to ask her to marry him. She was going to unlock the doors to her bar in no less than five minutes and he knew she was probably expecting him to be later than he said he'd be.

She walked up to the door and he could see the look of pure shock on her face to see him standing on the other side. She unlocked the door and opened it slowly to let him in. He grinned under his mask and locked the door behind himself.

"You're here early tonight, Kakashi." He nodded.

"I needed to talk to you." He took her hand and pulled her to a stool.

"About what? I have to open up, Kakashi."

"I know. Just sit down for a second." She sighed and sat down on the stool, folding her arms and looking at him with that look that told him to tread lightly. He knelt in front of her and reached into his bag.

"Kakashi?" He pulled the ring box out of his bag and opened it to reveal the ring he'd bought. Kiren's eyes went wide and he pulled the ring out of the box.

"Kiren, will you do me the honor of marrying me?" She nodded.

"Of course, you idiot!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him to his feet. He laughed a little and put the ring on her finger with her plain band. Kiren yanked his mask down and kissed him almost desperately. He held her close, pulling her off the stool and pushing his tongue into her mouth. They just stood there, kissing, until the clock behind the bar chimed the quarter hour and Kiren backed up. "Shit! I need to open up!" She pulled the diamond ring off her finger and put it in her back pocket and bolted to the door.

He cursed internally and pulled his mask back up, heading for his usual seat at the end of the bar. It didn't really bother him that she'd taken off the ring. Her work was the reason her band was so simple, it was the obvious reason she'd taken off his ring. There was still a ring on her finger—as always—and she'd accepted his proposal, so he was satisfied. He just wished that for once she didn't have to be the only person that worked in her bar and could brush taking care of it off on someone else so he could steal her away to the apartment upstairs for the night.

%%%

So yes, it's very short compared to others, but this is more of an epilogue than an actual chapter. And this is also officially the _very last_ chapter I will write for this story. No asking for more chapters, because the answer is no. Happy turkey day everyone! Gobble gobble.


	6. NOTICE

Moving to DeviantArt~! Preexisting posts here will remain, but anything new will be found at .com

Stories with mature content (Pretty much all of them) will require a DeviantArt account to view so I can keep maturity filters correct. Go watch me there and keep an eye out~!

I'm doing this to satisfy my own beliefs as there is no mature content filter on . My preexisting stories will also be available in edited versions on DeviantArt, so feel free to read those and tell me what you think.


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